Wednesday, March 19, 2014

The University of Kufa conference on "Religious Pluralism and Tolerance in the Dialogue of Civilizations"

Recently I had the privilege to attend a conference,
“Religious Pluralism and Tolerance in the Dialogue of Civilizations” (al-Ta’addudiya al-Diniya wa-l-Tasamuh fi
Ufuq al-Hadarat), that was sponsored by the University of Kufa and the
Institute for Intellectual Studies in al-Najaf Governorate. What was the purpose of
the conference and what did it accomplish?

I have attended many conferences in the Middle East
but this one was truly unique.First, it
sought to address in a very direct way the problem of sectarianism that has
become a social and political disease in much of the Middle East.Secondly, it brought together members of a
wide variety of religions, confessions and ethnic groups to discuss the threat
that sectarianism and the violence that it produces poses not just to the
Middle East but the global community as a whole. Third, it asked speakers
to present not only analytic but normative papers, namely those that offered
solutions to the problems they raised in their presentations.

Dr. Akeel Abd Yasssin

The conference, which is part of an effort of the
University of Kufa to bring a UNESCO Chair in Inter-Faith Dialogue to the
university, assembled a truly impressive group of participants.The conference was organized under the
leadership of the President of the University of Kufa, Dr. Akeel Abd Yassin.It was also sponsored by the Institute for
Intellectual Studies in al-Najaf, directed by Sayyid Ammar Abu Rgheif.

The conference invited clerics from a wide variety
of confessional backgrounds and countries.Shiite, Sunni and Christian clerics from Iraq, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and
academics from Iraq, Northern Ireland, Iran and the United States contributed
to the conference’s ecumenical quality.Prince
Hasan of Jordan made a presentation to the Opening Session via
videoconferencing of which the conference organizers were very proud.

The Grand Hall of the University of Kufa modeled after the Grand Mosque of Kufa

Sunni participants, such as Dr. Abd al-Sittar
al-Jumaily, president of Samarra University, Shaykh Abdullateef al-Humayyim
from al-Anbar, Dr. Farhan al-Tamimi, Professor of Comparative Religions and one of his graduate students from Tikrit
University, and a colleague, Dr. Faris Kamal Omar Nadhmi from Salahiddin University
in Arbil, also attended the conference, demonstrating its inclusive
character.All too often Western
analysts reduce Iraqi society to an amalgam of Sunnis, Shi’a and Kurds, who supposedly dislike
and cannot get along with one another. This Western bias was belied by the behavior of Shiites and Sunnis interacting in a relaxed and constructive manner that I
witnessed at the conference and in al-Najaf - a pattern of behavior that I have witnessed in many
trips to Iraq going back to my first visit in May and June of 1980.

The conference’s Opening Session al-Najaf’s Place of
Culture (Qasr al-Thaqafa) was attended
by over 1000 guests.The opening session
as followed by a full day of panels in which speakers laid out arguments
detailing that sectarianism and sectarian violence contradict the core tenets of all 3 of the
world’s Abrahamic religions.

What was most stunning about the conference was its
ecumenical spirit.Many different
viewpoints were expressed on matters relating religion and public life.Spirited debates not only took place during
the conference sessions but at the luncheons and dinners that followed, where
vigorous discussion continued.The
success of the conference cannot just be measured by the number and quality of
the speakers, but by the fact that, in a country which the West often views
through the conceptual prism of sectarianism, Iraqis and foreigners of widely
divergent perspectives could come together and engage in an open dialogue
without hostility or vituperation.

Before making my (Arabic) presentation in the afternoon session
on the first day, I unfolded a large white T-shirt with the words “IRAQ MUSEUM”
written on it.I had hardly opened the
shirt when the entire audience burst into applause, aware that this was part of
the international effort to save the heritage of the Iraq Museum that was
looted during the US invasion in 2003.Indeed
the shirt was distributed at a candlelight vigil, organized by the Rutgers University
Department of Art History, at which I had been asked to speak in the spring of
2008 on the 5th anniversary of the looting of the Iraq Museum.

I then gave my presentation, “Pluralism or Sectarianism?Building a Tolerant Political Culture through
Religion and Historical Memory in the New Iraq (al-Tacaddudiya aw al-Ta’ifiya? cAmaliyat Bina’ al-Thaqafa
al-Siyasiya al-Mutasamiha cala Usul al-Din wa-l-Dhakira al-Tarikhiya
fi-i-cIraq al-Jadid).

Among other points, I argued for the need to
rewrite Iraqi school textbooks to give a true representation of pre-Ba’thist Iraq. Iraqi youth – 70% of the population under the age of 30 – need to better comprehend
that the current sectarian violence in Iraq is not the result of a set of “ancient
hatreds” that set Iraqi apart, but the result of a state, both in Baghdad and Arbil, that has failed to meet its civic
responsibilities and, as a result, allowed sectarian entrepreneurs (tujjar al-siyasa) to fill the economic,
social and political vacuum created the
lack of social services and a leadership that emphasizes inclusiveness.

Beyond the conference, there were many developments
at which to marvel at the University of Kufa.The
architecture of the main administration building, that houses President Akeel
Abd Yassin’s office and many classrooms, is modeled on the Grand Mosque of Kufa.Everywhere one looks, construction is taking
place, either in expanding the university's existing faculties or building new ones.

Conference participants at the Imam Ali Shrine

Among the faculty with whom I had the pleasure to
meet, including Dr. Abbas Alaboudy, Dean of the Faculty of Dentistry, Dr.
Hassan Hadi Ali, Director of the Postgraduate Office and Senior Lecturer in the
Faculty of Chemical Pharmaceutical Sciences, and Dr. Sabah Sahib al-Aread, Dean
of the Faculty of Law and Political Science, among others, I sensed a real
urgency to promote the University of Kufa.

Indeed, every professor I met possessed a strong sense
of mission in viewing the building the University of Kufa as part of the process of creating a
new democratic and tolerant Iraq.Those faculty
educated in the West are not afraid to borrow what it has to offer.Thus I felt that President Akeel Yassin and
his faculty represent a model for an increasingly globalized world – educators
who are proud of and secure in their past (al-turath
al-‘Iraqi), but keen to learn from societies and cultures beyond Iraq’s
borders.

What is particularly striking about the faculty at
the University of Kufa is the number of young professors who are already
producing impressive scholarly works.As
an example, I could cite a book length study, American Strategy towards Iran following the Events of September 11,
2001 (al-Istratagiyat al-Amirikiya
tujaha Iran ba’d Ahdath Aylul ‘Amm 2001),
by Dr. Baha’ Adnan al-Sa’bari, that was published by the Hammurabi Center for Research
and Strategic Studies in Baghdad (2012).

When I visited Iraq during the 1980s, many
Iraqis spoke excellent English and many had been educated abroad, often in the US or the
UK. With the impact of the UN sanctions of the 1900s that devastated Iraq's educational system, Iraqi intellectuals, especially younger ones, are working to learn English and other foreign languages. Having held talks with President Akeel Yassin and his staff, we hope that
Rutgers University will be able to offer English classes via videoconferencing
and that Rutgers students may be able to study Arabic at the University of
Kufa.

Part of my trip in south-central Iraq was spent in
al-Najaf.Visiting the shrine of Imam
Ali was a very

moving experience.Marveling at the beautiful glass work on the
ceiling of the Imam Ali Shrine, a Sunni friend pointed out that all the delicate inlay had been done by Sunni artisans from al-Anbar Province, some of whom he knew.He noted that the area around Abu Ghayb
in eaastern Anbar Province is known for glasswork and, of course, the guardians of the Shrine wanted the
best possible decoration provided for it.When I asked if artisans coming from
al-Anbar to al-Najaf created any issues, my friend looked at me quizzically – why
should it, he asked?

Inside the shrine, I was joined by Professor Roy
Mottahedeh of Harvard University, one of world’s most prominent historians of
Islam, Dr. Gerry McKenna, former Vice-Chancellor and President of the University
of Ulster, who is known for the educational reforms he introduced in Northern
Ireland, Dr. Hassan Nadhem, who is Academic Adviser to Dr. Akeel Yassin, Editor-in-
Chief of the Kufa Review and Professor of Islamic Studies at the Islamic
College for Advanced Studies, and Dr. Faris Kamal Omar Nadhmi, Professor of Psychology
at Salahiddin University and author of a number of important studies on the
social psychology of marginalized groups in Iraq and on political Islam.

A number of other conference participants joined us,
including a graduate student in history from Tikrit University.He, like Shiite members of the conference group, kissed the
latticework on the Imam Ali Shrine and the walls.When I asked him if he had been to the
Shrinebefore, he said that he had, reinforcing
the many stories that I have heard from Shiite colleagues from south-central Iraq
that many Sunnis visit Shiite shrines there each year.

While in al-Najaf, we ate at the Holy Shrine
Guesthouse (Diyafat al-‘Ataba al-Sharifa) that serves two meals daily and feeds 3000
people in the city each day.Conference
participants were invited to eat there and enjoyed delicious nourishing
meals.This was an impressive example of
efforts to address social justice needs in al-Najaf which has a long history
throughout the 20th century of Shi’i clerics actively participating
in the Iraqi nationalist movement and fighting for this issue.

Shrine of Ayatollah Abu al-Qasim al-Khu'i

A group of conference members had the honor to be
invited to the home of Sayyid Jawad al-Khu’i, grandson of Grand Ayatollah Abu
al-Qasim al-Khu’i (1899-1992), the immediate predecessor of Grand Ayatollah Ali
al-Sistani.

During our discussion of the conference theme on
pluralism

Sayyid Jawad al-Khu'i

(al-ta’addudiya), Sayyid
Jawad noted that the headquarters of the al-Najaf branch of the Iraqi Communist
Party was located just down the street from his house on al-Muthaaan St. in the Hayy al-Sa’d
district.He indicated that this was another
example of how the citizens of al-Najaf live together and respect divergent
points of view.Indeed, after leaving
Sayyid Jawad’s house, we saw the bright red lights of the Iraqi Communist Party
headquarters.

Ayatollah Muhammad Bahr al-'Ulum

A number of us also visited the new Ma’had al-‘Alamayn
that was establish by another distinguished Najafi clerical family, that of Ayatollah
Muhammad Bahr al-‘Ulum, and his son Dr. Ibrahim Bahr al-‘Ulum, Iraq’s former
Minister of Oil.This institute specializes
in training its students in law and political science and is a new private institution
of higher learning.

As Ayatollah Muhammad and Dr. Ibrahim showed us around
the Institute, we met a number of students who explained the nature of their
research for either a MA or Ph.D degree.Many of the topics related to us speak to Iraq’s future needs, such as
those of adequate water for irrigation and agricultural purposes, and developing
a federal political system that meets the needs of all Iraq’s citizens.

Dr. Ibrahim informed us that 55% of the students are
drawn from al-Najaf Governorate, but that there are many students from Sunni
provinces and from Iraq's Kurdish majority provinces (in the KRG).During examinations for MA
and Ph.D examinations, we learned that all examination committees must be comprised of Sunni as
well as Shiite faculty members.

Dr. Ibrahim Bahr al-'Ulum

While in al-Najaf, Dr. Hassan Nadhem took a number
of us, including conference speaker, Dr., Abdul Aziz Sachedina, one of the most
prominent scholars of Shiism and currently a professor at George Mason University,
to the home of Dr. Muhammad Sa’id al-Turayhi, the Editor-in-Chief of the
journal al-Mawsam, and sometime
professor at Leiden University.

Dr. al-Turayhi showed us the manner in which he has
renovated his beautiful home along the Euphrates River that has been in his
family’s possession for over 130 years.We also were joined by his daughter Zeinab who is an accomplished human
rights lawyer.We were all pleased to
receive copies of Dr. al-Turayhi’s latest writings, including Massihiyun wa Shi'a: Jadal al-Lawhut wa Muqarabat al-Tarikh wa-l-Mithilugiya(Christians and Shi’a: The Dialectics of Theology and Approaches History and Mythology), and vol.
102 of al-Mawsam, on the rule of
General ‘Abd al-Karim Qasim (1958-1963), entitled Jumhuriyat al-Za’im (The
Leader’s Republic).

No academic can resist a trip to the book market and, for me, al-Najaf was no exception. Dr Sabah Aread, the Dean of the Faculty of Law and Political Science, was kind enough to take me to the al-Huwayyish district where we walked through narrow alleyways that remined me of an earlier sojourn in book shopping in Cairo many years ago.

When we arrived at Mustafa Bookstore (Makatabat Mustafa), Dr. Sabah introduced me to Abu Layth, the owner. The bookstore was filled with so many books, that we would have spent most of the afternoon if our schedule had not prohibited it. When I asked Ustadh Abu Layth for any new books on Iraqi politics and society, he pulled out a copy of the Arabic translation of my Memories of State: Politics, History and Collective Identity in Modern Iraq, not knowing that I was the author. It was a pleasant surprise to learn that the Arabic translation, published by Maher Kayyali's Arab Institure for Research and Publishing, was selling briskly in Iraq. I purchased so many books that I had all I could do to transport them back to the United States.

Dr. Hassan Nadhem introducing my talk at the Iraqi Writers Union

My lecture focused on the theme of, “Iraq after 2003:
What is the Vision of the Future State and Can it be Implemented?” (Iraq ba’d ma 2003: Hall min Ruw’iya ‘Amm li-l-Dawla
wa Kayfa al-Sabil li Bulughiha?).I
argued that Iraq needs to develop a strong foundation for democracy built on a
historical memory of tolerance and cultural diversity.I argued for an education system that
emphasizes respect for the past but an openness to critical thinking and
borrowing from other cultures to enrich the struggle to develop an indigenous democratic political
culture.

My trip to al-Najaf al-Ashraf was a wonderful
experience. Ayatollah Muhammad Bahr al-‘Ulum recently sent word through my
friend and colleague, Dr. Hassan Nadhem, that he still can see the white T-shirt
that I displayed before my lecture in the afternoon session of the first day of
the conference.That was a particularly warm
reminder that the spirit of pluralism and tolerance still flourishes in al-Najaf al-Ashraf. It will be a fitting end to the conference on Religious Pluralism and Tolerance in the Dialogue of Civilizations if the University of Kufa does in fact receive a UNESCO Chair in Inter-Faith Studies. Let's hope that receiving that chair becomes a reality.

About Me

Eric Davis is Executive Director, MA Program in Political Science - Concentration in United Nations and Global Policy Studies, Professor of Political Science and the former director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA. He is author of CHALLENGING COLONIALISM: BANK MISR AND EGYPTIAN INDUSTRIALIZATION, 1920-1941 (Princeton University Press, 1983; Institute for Arab Development, Beirut, 1986, and Dar al-Sharook, Cairo, 2009); STATECRAFT IN THE MIDDLE EAST: OIL, HISTORICAL MEMORY AND POPULAR CULTURE (University Presses of Florida, 1993); MEMORIES OF STATE: POLITICS, HISTORY AND COLLECTIVE IDENTITY IN MODERN IRAQ (University of California Press, 2005; Arab Institute for Research and Publishing, 2008; and the forthcoming, TAKING DEMOCRACY SERIOUSLY IN IRAQ (Cambridge University Press). Currently, he is writing a book on the Islamic State and the changing modalities of terrorism in the Middle East. He can be contacted at davis@polisci.rutgers.edu and @NewMidEast